Photo by EuroWeb

The right to life is unquestionably one of the biggest human rights debates in the United States. Some argue there is never an acceptable reason for the termination of a pregnancy, others will allow it in the case of a medical emergency or to save the life of the mother, some are for the use of only early term abortion, others argue that it is simply the mother’s choice.  The recent March for Life in DC this month is only one manifestation of this debate, which has been a major battle amongst individuals and parties since the historic Roe vs. Wade decision. However, the U.S. is not the only country where the issue of abortion is controversial.

Many developing countries are losing the battle against harmful and illegal abortion practices that significantly impact female health and family planning.  The practice of unsafe abortions is one of the leading contributors to maternal death worldwide.  These practices are often conducted outside hospitals or clinics, or lack qualified or any real medical supervision. Women who undergo unsafe abortions are prone to dangerous infection or bleeding, many of these women then go untreated due to both fear or shame and a lack of access to adequate healthcare.

Recently, a new study entitled, Induced abortion: incidence and trends worldwide from 1995 to 2000, was released by the New York Guttmacher Institute.  The study found that the number of women having induced abortions has remained high since their 2003 report, which had shown an initial reduction in induced abortions.  The report stated that while abortion rates had fallen from 1995 levels, they have now leveled off. The rise in world population is only a partial explanation for 2.2 million more abortions in 2008 compared to 2003.

“The declining abortion trend we had seen globally has stalled, and we are also seeing a growing proportion of abortions occurring in developing countries, where the procedure is often clandestine and unsafe. This is cause for concern,” says Gilda Sedgh , lead author of the study and a senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute. “This plateau coincides with a slowdown in contraceptive uptake. Without greater investment in quality family planning services, we can expect this trend to persist.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), complications from unsafe or illegal abortions  were the cause for an estimated 13% of all maternal deaths worldwide in 2008; almost all of these deaths occurred in developing countries. Globally, unsafe abortion accounted for 220 deaths per 100,000 procedures in 2008, 350 times the rate associated with legal induced abortions in the United States (0.6 per 100,000). Unsafe abortion is also a significant cause of ill-health. Each year approximately 8.5 million women in developing countries experience abortion complications serious enough to require medical attention, and three million of them do not receive the needed care.

The study also found that that laws restricting abortion were not not tied to lower abortion rates. In areas where abortion is heavily restricted, rates of the practice were actually higher.  The 2008 abortion rate in Africa was 29 per 1,000 women of childbearing age and in South America it was 32 per 1,000; while in Western Europe, where abortion is permitted by law, the rate was only 12 per 1,000.

 ”These latest figures are deeply disturbing. The progress made in the 1990s is now in reverse. Promoting and implementing policies to reduce the number of abortions is now an urgent priority for all countries and for global health agencies, such as WHO,” says Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet. “Condemning, stigmatizing, and criminalizing abortion are cruel and failed strategies. It’s time for a public health approach that emphasizes reducing harm – and that means more liberal abortion laws.”

The difference in rates has prompted many in the field to advocate for looser abortion laws on a global scale. However, others argue that better family planning programs, including education and increased access to birth-control, are they key to the problem.  As noted in the post, Leaders meet to put family planning on the global agenda, their are 215 million women worldwide without access to family planning, a staggering number that will only increase as the global population continues to rise.  Therefore, the issue of female health and family planning must become an international priority if there is to be a decline in maternal deaths.

• Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide
• Regional factsheets on induced abortion (Africa, Asia, Latin America)
• Graphics illustrating key findings of report
• International Data Center
• In Harms Way: The Impact of Kenya’s Abortion Law
• Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Statistics from Unsafe Abortion

Pakistan struggles to make progress against polio
Child malnutrition and vaccination refusals are hindering Pakistan’s effort to battle polio, and the health community is seeking new ways to address the problem. Despite authorities’ backing for an ambitious vaccination program last year, the number of cases in 2011 actually increased over 2010.

German researchers pave way to cheaper malaria drug
Researchers in Germany have developed a way to synthesize artemisinin, a drug crucial to anti-malaria efforts, using oxygen and light — a breakthrough that should make artemisinin not only easier to produce, but more affordable. “The impact of this is hard to overestimate,” said one observer, industrial chemist Jack Newman.

Polio gains in Afghanistan threatened by outbreak
Polio cases in Afghanistan nearly tripled in 2011 in a major setback to international public health efforts to eradicate the disease. Dr. Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization said, “This is a national tragedy to end up with a major polio outbreak, especially with all the effort they have put into it. It increases the risk to neighboring countries and is both a local and national, and international, concern.

India sets sights on higher education
Indian authorities are scrambling to build 1,000 universities and 50,000 colleges over the next decade to promote higher education and development. The number of young Indians entering the workforce is expected to reach 100 million by 2020, and authorities hope increased higher education opportunities will help propel India’s economy in the decades to come. 

Valuing Indian women, by the numbers
A considerable drop in the number of girls in India as a result of sex-selective abortions and general neglect could, in fact, make women more valuable in accordance with the law of supply and demand. Not only could women begin to be paid better in relation to men, but their marriage value could rise too, ostensibly reducing the burden of dowries on families.

Kenyan faces legal action over child bride
A Kenyan man facing charges for defiling a child bride he paid about $58 for has called for the girl’s parents to be brought in to corroborate. Child marriage remains commonplace in Kenya due to chronic poverty, tradition and the desire to protect family honor

Prioritizing the end of polio
The last recorded case of polio in India affected an 18-month-old girl in West Bengal, Rukhsar Khatoon, who recovered from the disease without lasting paralysis — only a few years ago, the country recorded as many as 100,000 cases a year. Eradication of the disease can happen elsewhere, according to philanthropist Bill Gates, when there is “political will, quality immunization campaigns and an entire nation’s determination.

UNICEF officials talks of past, future challenges
In an interview, Susan Bissell, chief of child protection programs for UNICEF, talks about influences on her career, as well as the reputation of the UN agency and the emerging global challenges it is facing. Among the programs she mentions is the public-private partnership, Together for Girls, for which the agency is conducting first-ever surveys of violence against children — including sexual violence — in households across the world.

Last week, I discussed the breaking news of an emerging strain of “totally drug resistant” tuberculosis (TDR-TB)* in Mumbai.  This week, the Indian government denied the findings, arguing that the twelve cases were in fact extensively drug resistant (XDR, not “extremely,” as I wrote previously).  The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that nine of the twelve patients were responding to treatment, while the other three had died.  Furthermore, the Ministry said that the diagnostics lab at the Hinduja National Hospital, where the twelve patients were treated, was not accredited to diagnose XDR or TDR cases.

The Ministry also pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recognize the classification of “TDR” at this time.  In an article written this month, the WHO explains that current drug susceptibility tests cannot determine with enough certainty whether a strain is XDR or TDR to make a solid conclusion.  The WHO will meet in March to discuss TB drug susceptibility diagnostics and whether, or how, to define TDR-TB.  The author of the study claiming the emergence of TDR in India, Dr. Zarir Udwadia, argued that this was not the time to parse words, saying: “Let them call it what they want.  For physician and patient, it’s not just a question of semantics–it’s a question of survival and mortality.”  In more concerning news, Business Week published an article today detailing that ten more possible cases of TDR (or XDR) TB have emerged 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Mumbai.  Indian and WHO officials are meeting to discuss what to do, including the possibility of mandatory quarantines.

Whether or not it’s fair to use the TDR moniker, drug resistance is a serious, emerging issue that may very well define the next stage of global health.  The appearance of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and XDR TB, MRSA strains, and other drug resistant pathogens in the past couple of decades or so, has shown that despite the great strides we have made since the discovery of penicillin in the last century, life will find a way around the miracle drugs we have developed (about which I wrote in September 2011, including Dr. Fleming’s concerns in 1945).  More aggressive quarantine protocols and drug adherence strategies must be discussed, for a start.  This in itself is a fraught notion, as it raises questions about patients’ rights and freedoms, stigma of and discrimination against people diagnosed with drug resistant pathogens, and similar issues.  Better diagnostic tools must be developed and rolled out globally, with particular attention paid to developing nations, where need, disease burdens, and non-adherence are often greatest.  More efforts must be made to strengthen overburdened and underfunded health systems, particularly in the developing world, and to effectively train health care workers to diagnose, treat, and support patients with pathogens that may become, or are, drug resistant.  Finally, pharmaceutical companies must make new drugs more widely available and affordable, while stepping up development of new drugs.  These last three points, of course, have been sticking points for almost every global health issue for a long time and continue to plague disease prevention, treatment, and eradication efforts worldwide.  We are reaching a turning point, one at which some drug resistant pathogens are on the cusp of shifting from a handful of cases, an endemic, to a bigger, epidemic or even pandemic problem.  Now is the time to initiate discussions on what the global community will do to stem drug resistance.

*If you want a bit more information on TDR-TB, take a look at the WHO’s page on TDR, or check out The Los Angeles Times‘ interview with Dr. Otto Yang of the UCLA medical school.  Discussions of (and mild panic about) drug resistance, especially for TB, have been around for years–check out John Le Carré’s novel The Constant Gardener or its excellent film adaptation for a little MDR-TB/Big Pharma/international conspiracy thriller on the topic.  

Header photo of hand-stitched lung art available here, by Spec-ta-cles, CC BY 2.0.

By Ravi Nessman for The Associated Press

India will celebrate a full year since its last reported case of polio on Friday, a major victory in a global eradication effort that seemed stalled just a few years ago.

If no previously undisclosed cases of the crippling disease are discovered, India will no longer be considered polio endemic, leaving only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on that list.

“This is a game changer in a huge way,” said Bruce Aylward, head of the World Health Organization’s global polio campaign.

The achievement gives a major morale boost to health advocates and donors who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating the stubborn disease that the world had promised to eradicate by 2000.

It also helps India, which bills itself as one of the world’s emerging powers, shed the embarrassing link to a disease associated with poverty and chaos, one that had been conquered long ago by most of the globe.

The government cautiously welcomed the milestone as a confirmation of its commitment to fighting the disease and the 120 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) it has spent on the program.

“We are excited and hopeful. At the same time, vigilant and alert,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a statement. Azad warned that India needed to push forward with its vaccination campaign to ensure the elimination of any residual virus and to prevent the import and spread of virus from abroad.

The polio virus, which usually infects children in unsanitary conditions, attacks the central nervous system, sometimes causing paralysis, muscular atrophy, deformation and, in some cases, death.

With its dense population, poor sanitation, high levels of migration and weak public health system, India had been seen as “the perfect storm of polio,” Aylward said. Even some vaccinated children fell ill with the virus because malnutrition and chronic diarrhea made their bodies too weak to properly process the oral vaccine.

In 2009, India had 741 cases. That plunged to 42 in 2010. Last year, there was a single case, an 18-month-old girl named Ruksana Khatun who fell ill in West Bengal state Jan. 13. She was the country’s last reported polio victim.

Part of the sudden success is credited to tighter monitoring that allowed health officials to quickly hit areas of outbreaks with emergency vaccinations. Part is also attributed to the rollout of a new vaccine in 2010 that more powerfully targeted the two remaining strains of the disease.

Under the $300 million-a-year campaign the government runs with help from the WHO and UNICEF, 2.5 million workers fan out across the country twice a year to give the vaccine to 175 million children.

They hike to remote villages, wander through trains to reach migrating families and stop along roadsides to vaccinate the homeless.

Philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation has made polio eradication a priority, hailed India’s achievement as an example of the progress that can be made on difficult development problems.

“Polio can be stopped when countries combine the right elements: political will, quality immunization campaigns and an entire nation’s determination. We must build on this historic moment and ensure that India’s polio program continues to move full-steam ahead until eradication is achieved,” he said in a statement.

Health officials are working to make polio the second human disease eradicated, after smallpox. But while smallpox carriers were easy to find because everyone infected developed symptoms, only a tiny fraction of those infected with the polio virus ever contract the disease. So while no one in India is reported to have suffered from polio in a year, the virus — which travels through human waste — could still be lingering.

That’s why the country will not be certified as completely polio-free until at least three full years pass without a case. And it is why public health advocates warn against complacency in the massive vaccination efforts.

“We are at a threshold. If we take a long step, we may be in trouble,” said Dr. Yash Paul, a pediatrician in the northern city of Jaipur who was a member of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics’ polio eradication committee until it was dismantled last year because the academy felt it was no longer needed.

Paul also appealed to public health officials to begin switching from the oral vaccine, which is easy to administer but contains live virus that can cause the disease in rare cases, to an injectible vaccine that uses dead virus.

The last time a country came off the endemic list was Egypt in 2006. If India succeeds in getting removed from the list in the coming weeks, only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria will remain. All three saw a rise in cases last year over 2010, and Pakistan is suffering a particularly explosive outbreak, Aylward said.

In addition, 22 other countries that had eradicated the disease suffered new outbreaks. However, some of those outbreaks stemmed from polio imported from India, so getting rid of the virus here is expected to lessen such outbreaks in the future.

Dr. Donald Henderson, who headed WHO’s smallpox eradication program and had long been skeptical of the possibility of eradicating polio, said Thursday he was now hopeful the disease could be conquered across the world by the end of next year.

“You look at a series of dominoes, this is the big one. The others are definitely easier. If we can do it in India, than I’m more optimistic that we can do it in these other countries,” he said. “I’m celebrating a bit. I’ll certainly drink a glass tomorrow … and keep my fingers crossed.”

Aylward hopes India’s success will spur donors to dedicate more money to the polio fight, partly because full eradication could free up funds for other global health issues.

The WHO program needs another $500 million to fund operations for the rest of the year, and some programs could run out of funding by March, he said.

“If we fail at this point, it’s an issue of will,” he said.

Pakistanis for Peace Editor’s Note- Congratulations to India on a great achievement. Despite massive poverty and numerous internal problems, India is working towards the betterment of its people, something Pakistan can learn a great deal from~

Filed under: Afghanistan, India, Pakistan Tagged: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Polio, Smallpox, UNICEF, WHO, World Health Organization

Family planning efforts in Pakistan
Efforts to promote family planning in Pakistan are struggling against the reality that many women are simply not in a position to make such decisions. Pakistan has the regions highest fertility rate with an average of four children per woman. 

Korean “comfort women” in landmark protest against Japan
Korean women seized by Japanese military during World War II, then forced into sexual slavery, staged their 1,000th successive weekly protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday. “I want President Lee [Myung Bak] to urge Japan to apologize for the past sins and make compensation. The Japanese ambassador should make a formal apology as quickly as possible before we all die,” said Kim Bok-dong, 88, one of five former “comfort women” in attendance, and one of only 63 still alive today from among the more than 200,000 girls taken to military brothels.

UN asks donors for $7.7 billion to meet humanitarian emergencies in 2012
The United Nations projects it will need $7.7 billion from international donors in 2012 to cope with humanitarian emergencies affecting some 51 million people in 16 countries, chiefly Somalia, Sudan and Kenya. The appeal, made today by Valerie Amos, the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, is less than the $8.9 billion the world body sought for 2011.

Bensouda to take on gender violence at ICC
Holding perpetrators of gender-based crimes accountable for their actions will receive increased focus moving forward, newly elected International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says. Bensouda, who is the first woman to hold the ICC’s top prosecution position, believes the court’s efforts can help end the impunity that surrounds sexual assault and gender-based crime in many parts of the world.

Global malaria death toll falling
The number of people dying from malaria has dropped significantly over the past decade thanks to concentrated prevention and treatment efforts, according to the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report. “It is remarkable progress. When I began working in the malaria field in Africa, we were fighting a losing battle. Now all that has changed, and the risk of dying from malaria has fallen by a third in a decade,” said Dr. Richard Cibulskis, the report’s chief author. Still, WHO warns that insufficient funding may limit progress. Funding hit $2 billion in 2011, the highest level ever but still short of the $5 – $6 billion needed annually to achieve WHO’s target of zero malaria deaths by 2015.

USAID chief makes case for investment in global health
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development recounted the story of a woman at the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya, as an example of why investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars is needed in global health. “There was a woman who had traveled for 80 kilometers, carrying her remaining belongings to a place of shelter, and along the way had been attacked and robbed. She reached a point where she had to make an unimaginable decision. She could no longer carry both of her children. She had to choose because she couldn’t physically carry both of her children into that camp. I have three kids. I just couldn’t forget that story,” Rajiv Shah said Thursday at a dinner hosted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Photojournalist exposes secret world of child brides
In an interview, photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair — who shot the feature “Too Young To Wed” for National Geographic magazine — discusses nearly a decade of work investigating child marriage throughout the world. Despite international agreements that outlaw the practice in many countries, millions of young girls, some as young as five, are forced into marriage annually.

UN Population Fund Executive Director on HIV/AIDS, Maternal Health, and Leadership
In a far-ranging interview, Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Population Fund, discusses approaches to sexual, reproductive and maternal health, as well as hot-button issues such as population growth. “The unmet need for voluntary family planning remains appallingly high, considering that 215 million women in developing countries still lacking access,” he said. “The gap between this unmet need and the amount of money available for family planning must be bridged, starting with those in most need — the rural and urban poor, and also young people, upon whom our future rests.”

Five girls who resisted child marriage hailed as ‘icons’ by President
 Economic progress is not the only indicator of a country’s development, a nation requires its people to show courage against social pressures and overcome social evils, said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Wednesday after meeting five teenagers from West Bengal who fought social and family pressure and resisted child marriage.
The girls, with little education and almost no support, turned down marriage proposals and faced the anger of their families and the community. They earned praise from the President, who described them as “icons” and asked them to share their stories and encourage girls to say no to under-age marriages.

The issue of exclusive breast-feeding for the first year has been an area of confusion for many mothers in developing nations, especially following the marketing practices of many formula companies to push products in a misleading manner, an issue about which I have previously written.

However, for mothers who are HIV-positive, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, exclusive breastfeeding is the most practical option.  According to a large African study Kesho Bora, placing HIV-positive mothers on a combination of three antiretroviral (ARV) treatments during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding cuts HIV infections in infants by 43 percent by the age of 12 months, and reduces transmissions during breastfeeding by 54 percent.  The African study and practice comes into direct conflict with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2006 recommendations, which advises that ARV drugs be given to mothers only through the time of delivery.

Yet the WHO 2010 guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding with an ARV treatment intervention for the first six months of a child’s life to reduce transmission, and continued breastfeeding, with formula or other foods, until the child is at least a year old.  Alternatively – where it is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe – WHO recommends complete avoidance of breastfeeding.  The biggest problem has been that the latest guidelines on infant-feeding options for HIV-positive mothers in Africa have not been disseminated in many countries, leaving women confused about the best nutritional path to protect their children from contracting the virus, and therefore leaving infants at greater risk.

 ”The six months of exclusive breastfeeding is what is crucial for mothers to understand – that not doing it is what raises the child’s HIV risk; but we are finding that while many countries have officially adopted the WHO guidelines, they have not trickled down, and health centres, policy-makers and communities are still unclear on what advice to give mothers,” said Aditi Sharma, of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), and coordinator of  the report The Long Walk: Ensuring comprehensive care for women and families to end vertical transmission.

Another view can be found in a new report by community health workers from Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Nigeria, that was launched at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Research found that prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs were focused too narrowly on the provision of ARVs to HIV-positive pregnant women, rather than more comprehensive approaches that involved family planning, maternal healthcare and exclusive breastfeeding.

It is clear that a clear and concise plan must not only be established but promoted on a global scale by all development agencies to ensure that mothers and children are safeguarded and a sustainable effort to lower HIV transmissions is in our future.   According to the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), more in-depth delivery prevention of mother-to-child services in Africa are greatly needed.

“Countries must ensure that policy filters down to the women in all aspects of PMTCT – from HIV prevention for women to family planning, to the best ARV prophylaxis option to proper infant feeding to proper healthcare for the mother, child and family,” Aditi Sharma, Co-Coordinator of the Treatment Monitoring and Advocacy Project (TMAP) said. “It is the only way we can achieve the 2015 targets of reducing vertical transmission by 90 percent (IRIN).”

Silence never won rights.  They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.  - Roger Nash Baldwin

Today we celebrate International Human Rights Day, marking the 63rd anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today is one that continues to inspire people across the globe, transcending cultures and borders, as they stand united for human rights for all men, women and children.

The promotion and protection of global human rights became a priority for the United Nations following World War II, when world united to see that the horrors of the war would not be repeated. Respect for human rights and human dignity “is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”, the General Assembly declared three years later with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  As a result in 1950, the UN General Assembly selected 10 December as Human Rights Day (Resolution 423(V)).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born from the wounds of the Holocaust, which shocked the world over and gave birth to the word genocide.  As we sit in remembrance, we should note that we do not have to go back some 63 years to remember the monstrous human rights violations that face men, women and children.  The situations in the DRC, Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Sri Lanka, Gaza and Afghanistan, are only a few examples of where we should ask ourselves if we have made any significant progresses.  Even though gender inequality has found a larger place on the awareness map this past year, we continue to battle for equality and education for all, and for an end to gender discrimination, child labor and all forms of modern slavery. We have gained some ground in the battle to ensure basic human rights for all. But we have a long way to go: the horrors of abuse, war and genocide still exist, and they are too often ignored as we go about our daily lives.

86% of the world’s children live in the developing world. Many lack access to primary education, and forced labor, sexual abuse, and gender inequality run rampant. A third of all children in the developing world have had some level of malnutrition by the age of five, and have little or no access to adequate healthcare. In 2011, millions upon millions of children continue to live in dire conditions. 215 million children work as child laborers, 115 million in hazardous conditions (ILO). While there has been progress, especially in regard to awareness on issues like child trafficking, the majority of problems are stagnate in the world of international politics.

It is clear that we have a long way to go yet to ensure that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is upheld across the globe. On this Human Rights Day, let us act as a united global community and hold ourselves accountable for ensuring the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Take this day not only to celebrate progress, but to resolve to act, to address the voices of those who seek their right to freedom.

Links to UN and UN System sites:

United Nations

• Human Rights Day
• Human Rights
• Human Rights Council
• General Assembly, Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Committee (3rd Committee)
• Global Issues on the UN Agenda: Human Rights
• UN Works for Human Rights
• CyberSchoolBus – Student Conference on Human Rights at the United Nations
• International Criminal Court

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Human Rights Day
• Message of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Commission on Human Rights
• Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
• Human Rights Committee
• Human Rights Bodies
• Human Rights Issues
• International Law

International Labour Organization

• International Labour Standards
• ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
• Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

Unesco

• Human Rights
• Human Rights Education
• World Forum on Human Rights, 2nd Edition – Nantes, France, 10-13 July 2006

UNICEF

• Children’s Rights
• Children Have Rights
• Realizing Rights, Getting Results

UnitedNationsDevelopment Fund for Women

• Human Rights

United Nations Development Programme

• Poverty Reduction
• Inter-Agency Campaign on Women’s Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Equality between Women and Men

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

• Democracy, Governance and Well-Being
• Gender Justice, Development and Rights

World Health Organization

• Health and Human Rights

International Human Rights Links: .

• African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Alliances for Africa
• Amnesty International
• Arab Organization for Human Rights
• Asian Human Rights Commission
• Carter Center
• Centre for Human Rights
• (University of Pretoria, South Africa)
• Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
• (Washington College of Law, American University)
• Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
• Derechos Human Rights
• European Court of Human Rights
• Human and Constitutional Rights (Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia Law School )
• Human Rights Internet
• Human Rights Library
• (University of Minnesota)
• Human Rights Watch
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
• International Federation of Human Rights Leagues
• International Institute of Human Rights
• Rights International
• Universal Rights Network
• Women’s Human Rights